I will be seeing the guy I was having cut my steel today. I am hoping he did not start cutting the firebox yet. He said they had a sheer go down and was not sure if he could get it cut yesterday. I am thinking of adding 2 inches all the way around. I assume this will not change my FB/CC cooking size but will it change my chimney size? New FB will be 3136 cu in. 200% as to what is needed. Feldon's calculator references the FB for most of its numbers but Dave references the CC size. So I am unsure if I need bigger volume chimney to handle the bigger FB. I can always step the chimney pipe up to 3in instead of 2.5. Is there a preference on Diameter size.

As RW notes.... bigger is better for a FB...... The size of the FB does not affect how the smoker cooks... It doesn't affect the exhaust... or the amount of heat you cook with.... A larger FB just makes life easier like ash storage, adding wood, uniform temps, more thermal mass, etc....

I will be seeing the guy I was having cut my steel today. I am hoping he did not start cutting the firebox yet. He said they had a sheer go down and was not sure if he could get it cut yesterday. I am thinking of adding 2 inches all the way around. I assume this will not change my FB/CC cooking size but will it change my chimney size? New FB will be 3136 cu in. 200% as to what is needed. Feldon's calculator references the FB for most of its numbers but Dave references the CC size. So I am unsure if I need bigger volume chimney to handle the bigger FB. I can always step the chimney pipe up to 3in instead of 2.5. Is there a preference on Diameter size.

Thanks,

Jason

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Once you know the size of the CC, and make calculations based on the CC, you can increase the FB and not have to make any adjustments.. but......... you can change anything you want if you think the smoker will not work properly.... change the exhaust.... change the FB/CC opening..... change the FB air inlets.... change the area under the RF plate..... Once you do all of those changes, remember one thing.... the CC has not changed..... :biggrin:

The tank tested and confirmed 20gal. I got some work done today with some help from the neighbor. I cut off all the fittings and the stand off the old bottom. I reused the stand by pounding it out to better match the 14 in tank. I was also able to cut the shape out for the firebox. The metal was not cut yet for thw FB so I will add the 2 inches all the way around. The stand I made at work was a huge help in working on this.

Still need to grind down the welds. If you look in this pic you can see the trace out for the door. I wanted to be sure it would be ok before I cut it. I wanted a nice wide door to help with getting the top removable rack out. Does anyone see a problem making the door almost as wide as the smoker other than heat loss when opened? I don not have a issue adding support if needed to keep if form twisting or bowing out.

Just take into consideration the size of your door flanges and with how light you will find the to be you may need to mount some type of clamp to keep the cook chamber closed tight and maintain the proper draft. 2 reasons you may want to pull the sides of the cook chamber door in.

Looks good, like Jwsimp mentioned, leave enough room for door flanges, you don't want them right on the weld beads. As far as top and bottom cuts for the door, dead center 3 to 6 o'clock will give you the deepest and most sq inches on your main rack ( highly recommend) but will lower your height, so something to really think about what you will be mostly wanting to cook.

What I do for the top cut is position the smoker at the estimated finished height you will be mounting it on stand, the imagine a line of sight to the rear of your bottom (main) cooking rack, and then cut the top of the door just high enough to be able to see the rear of that rack clearly.

Oh yeah, don't weld up those plugs on each end of the tank, they will work nicely for a rotisserie!

Yes I was also thinking of the clamps to keep the door shut. This is why I did not cut anything yet, I wanted to hear your opinions. I think I have a new problem now. Once we got the hole cut for the firebox we noticed a oil in it. I think this tank was used for a press. I left a message with the maintenance man to see what was in it. If I Wash really good with soap then burn it out really good maybe even a few times would it be ok. I see a lot of the UDS guys only use food grade drums but others use home heating oil drums. I have to think all the time was wasted but I don't need to be getting sick either. I was planning on cutting the top part of the door attach my hinges then make the last three cuts and burn it out.

The plugs on one side was going to be where I placed the chimney and the other was where I was going to run my thermometers. I was going to have a plain plug for when I do not need a thermometer then one with my two wires running in for a wireless thermometer. Right now I have a Oregon single probe but want to get the Mavrick dual probe. A rotisserie is a pretty darn good idea.

Edit: I used Google and there seems to be a lot of people who seem to have success burning a drum that once had hydraulic oil in it. I will scrub it out then burn it really good then wash again. I will be sure to do it before adding the FB to be sure I get it all.

I've never agreed with the school of thought that you should mount your hinges after making the first to cut off the cook chamber door, if anything it will make things more difficult when you try to add the flanges.
It's really hard to predict exactly where the hinge should be mounted in order to add a flange and still have things function smoothly.
I vote you cut the door out notch the edge every 3-4 inches and blind weld the flange on from the backside. Then you can lay the door in place on the cooker and layout the hinges with much less headache.
Just throwing out my .02, if I recall RibWizzard does this as well and had created a thread on the entire process.

I've never agreed with the school of thought that you should mount your hinges after making the first to cut off the cook chamber door, if anything it will make things more difficult when you try to add the flanges.

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On this small of a cooker, your probably right about not needing to add the hinges first, door is light enough to handle, just tack weld something on there to give you a handle to hold onto it when doing the final cut. On a large smoker though, where the door can weight 40lbs or even more, the hinges make it nice, not having to worry about wrestling with that thing.

When you say notch the edge every three to four inches do you mean on the smoker or the door it self. I am thinking the door and it is to make room for the weld so it does not hit on the smoker itself. I will look for the post by Ribwizzard. I thought the flange got welded the whole way around on the outside to seal it off.

I gave the list of sheet metal to my friend for the firebox and flanges. He wants a rack of ribs cooked in trade which I am more than happy to do. He works for a place that makes car haulers and he is using the leftover sheet that they say is too small for them.

I was planing to use 3/16 plate 1 inch wide for my smoker flange seal. He is unable to get anything thinner. Should I go find some 1/8 or 3/32 to make it easier to form. I was planning on making a jig to form the 14in circumference but the piece for the top and bottom was going to be a struggle to get the curve to make a seal.

These were posted in another thread by Dave. I was planning on using this design with a piece of oak between the two for a handle. I was hoping it would help support the door plus add weight to it to help keep it sealed.

Whats cool about this design is,...if your door springs a bit from end to end, shortening or lengthening the oak handle can adjust it. So I recommend, when welding the braces on the door, toe them in slightly, usually they need to be pushed out to bring the front bottom lip back out. Either way, it does not look bad if the are angled in, but if they are angled out, you eye will catch it more.